While many public agencies focus a lot of their efforts on the pursuit of grants, there’s a lot of work that goes into managing a grant post-award as well. This involves a significant amount of tracking and reporting, which is all in the interest of maintaining compliance.
Grant compliance is the cornerstone of grants management, and it’s important for both grantors and grantees to have an understanding of.
Grantees must ensure that the funds they’ve been awarded are spent in accordance with the budget provided in a grant application, programs are being measured and issues addressed as they arise, and there are individuals within their organization solely focused on managing grant compliance.
For their part, grantors themselves must be careful watchdogs to ensure that the funds they allocate are used carefully, and to maintain accurate records themselves.
How do I maintain grant compliance?
While grant compliance requires effort, it ultimately helps to benefit both your government and your community. Perhaps more importantly, grant compliance fosters trust between grantor and grantee, ensuring future grant awards for programs, curriculums, and facilities that directly improve citizen quality of life.
Here are a few ways you can improve your grant compliance workflow:
1. Know your stuff — Compliance requires research. Stay informed, as grant compliance best practices can change and evolve. While grant compliance requirements are sometimes included with your initial funding agreement, it’s still important to ask appropriate follow-up questions whenever a particular detail of that agreement is unclear, or if a particular reporting metric is difficult to convey.
2. Designate a compliance authority figure — Grant compliance often requires executive decision-making, so allocating responsibilities to a designated grant compliance specialist within your agency can help ensure you’re staying on top of things. This individual can delegate tasks appropriately, and serve as your contact person whenever a particular grant compliance detail is unclear.
3. Create and maintain internal processes — Healthy grant compliance begins with effective and efficient grant compliance systems. Take the time to build documents that record each step of your process, and explain which individuals or departments are to handle certain responsibilities. Document all compliance regulations, and keep that information handy for reference. If possible, use a cloud-based grants management software to save this documentation in the cloud, where all team members can access it remotely.
4. Implement data collection best practices — To ensure future funding, you’ll need to show grantors that your government is capable of managing funds–and handling reporting–for each grant allocated. Make sure to take the necessary steps in gathering and organizing data to make the reporting stage easy. Secure data collection is also important to help prevent any data losses or breaches. If you’re considering a particular cloud-based grants management solution, be sure to ask about their cyber-protective measures.
5. Keep reports close — Grant reporting is a major part of grant compliance. For best results, keep all reports up to date and accessible in case you ever need to reference applicable grant figures. Whether you need to know how much funding you’ve earned or where funds are delivered across your community, knowing you’ve got the necessary reports to answer those questions can give you invaluable peace of mind.
What happens if I don’t uphold grant compliance?
Unfortunately, there is no “Get Out of Jail Free” card in grant compliance, and failing to adhere could result in real consequences.
Loss of grant funding
Grantees and sub-grantees can lose funding during an award period if there is a gross failure to comply with grant requirements. Grantors can also opt to not fund a grantee/sub-grantee in subsequent years based on lack of compliance, which can sever the relationship and cause irreparable damage. In addition, grantors (particularly at the state or local government levels) can lose funding earmarked for particular programs if there is mismanagement of grant funding.
Designation as a “High Risk Grantee”
Federal agencies have the option to designate certain grantees as “high risk”. This designation can trigger a series of implications, all of which can severely impact the grantee’s future funding opportunities. Typically based on previous performance issues, financial instability, or compliance failures, a high risk designation signals to funding bodies that the grantee may not effectively manage new funds. As a result, not only does this label hinder the grantor’s willingness to invest further resources, but it can also taint the grantee’s reputation across other potential funding sources.
So how do you give yourself the best chance at compliance from the very beginning? Whether you’re a grantor or grantee, here’s some questions you should be asking yourself right away.
Grantor compliance – questions to ask
- Do your RFP requirements align with your organizational priorities?
- Do you meet regularly with executive leadership to address short-term and long-term strategic goals for your grant programs?
- Do financial and programmatic staff meet regularly to ensure that grantees are meeting all of the requirements stipulated in your award agreement?
- Do you maintain records of each grantee should additional compliance and/or audit issues arise?
- Are there standard operating procedures and systems in place to create a compliance framework within your organization?
Grantee and sub-grantee compliance – questions to ask
- Do you understand the statutory and/or regulatory rules that govern the grant award for which you have been funded?
- Did you review the grant award requirements established in your award agreement?
- Are there designated personnel with your organization to manage grants in the post-award phase?
- Is leadership aware of the post-award grant requirements, especially for larger grant awards?
- Do you regularly collaborate with grantors to ensure open communication, and address issues as they arise?
Ensure grants compliance with Euna Grants
When you’re dealing with a federal or state government grant, peace of mind is priceless. That’s why switching to a purpose-built, digital grants management platform like Euna Grants is a no-brainer. Baked-in state and federal compliance requirements let you effortlessly keep up with changing guidelines, and seamless integration with your existing financial management system empowers you to create accurate and accessible reporting.
Ready to take your grants management to the next level? Book a demo today.
